Justice News

Former Employee Sentenced For Embezzling More Than $1 Million From His Company

ATLANTA - DeMarco Doxie has been sentenced to four years and five months in prison for his theft of more than $1 million from his former employer, Ennis Paint (currently known as Ennis-Flint).

“The defendant manipulated, lied to, stole from, and violated the trust of his employer. He created a fictitious company to bill Ennis for environmental and safety compliance work that his made-up company never performed, and then used a significant portion of the stolen money to upgrade and remodel his home,” said Acting U.S. Attorney John Horn.

J. Britt Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office, stated: “Extensive white collar based fraudulent schemes can, over time, add up to significant loss amounts for the victim companies, as seen in this case. Mr. Doxie, the defendant in this matter, displayed extensive disregard for his employer and will now be held accountable for his criminal conduct.”

“In addition to stealing from his employer, Mr. Doxie concealed the income and failed to pay taxes on it,” stated IRS Criminal Investigation, Special Agent in Charge, Veronica F. Hyman-Pillot. “Individuals who line their pockets with profits from fraudulent schemes should know the money is taxable and you will be held accountable."

According to Acting U.S. Attorney Horn, the charges and other information presented in court: Doxie was the former Corporate Environmental Health & Safety Manager for Ennis Paint. Ennis, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, manufactures and sells a variety of road marking and pavement surface treatments. Ennis maintains a facility in Atlanta, Georgia, where Doxie worked.

During more than four years of his employment, from June 2007 through August 2011, Doxie used a sham business that he created and owned – Outlook Environmental & Safety Solutions, LLC (Outlook) – as his main vehicle to systematically embezzle large sums of money from Ennis.

Beginning in June 2007, Doxie began creating fictitious invoices for environmental work that Outlook had supposedly performed for Ennis Paint, when Doxie was well aware that Outlook had not performed any such work and had no employees. Ennis Paint was never informed by Doxie that he was the actual owner of Outlook while Doxie was submitting fraudulent invoices to Ennis Paint for payment to Outlook, and would never have paid the invoices had it known.

Doxie also defrauded Ennis by using an American Express Corporate Card issued by Ennis Paint that was supposed to be used for Ennis expenses. Doxie used the American Express company credit card to make payments to Outlook even though Outlook had not performed any work for Ennis. Ennis Paint paid the monthly bill on Doxie's American Express card. Ennis Paint would not have approved the payments if it knew that Doxie was the true owner of Outlook, a fact that Doxie intentionally concealed from Ennis. Doxie also paid for some of his personal expenses using his Ennis-issued credit cards in 2011. In total, Doxie stole more than $1 million from Ennis paint as a result of his fraudulent schemes. Additionally, Doxie was convicted of filing false tax returns, because he under-reported his actual income to the IRS for tax years 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 by failing to include the income that he had received from the fraud. As a result, Doxie underpaid his taxes by nearly $300,000.

Doxie, 44, of South Bend, Indiana, was sentenced to four years, five months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,008,417.49 to Ennis Paint and $299,750 in restitution to the IRS. Doxie was convicted of these charges on September 29, 2014, after he pleaded guilty to all the charges in the indictment.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.